the fiscal cliff. house speaker john boehner said there's been no progress in the last two weeks. and the u.n. general assembly voted to recognize palestine as a non-member observer state. the u.s. was one of only nine states voting no. and, you've heard the term "glacial pace"? not exactly, says one director who's scaled enough ice, to know better. hari sreenivasan has more. >> sreenivasan: filmmaker james balog spent years documenting dramatic changes in arctic glaciers. i talked with him about his documentary "chasing ice." that's our science thursday feature. on art beat, digital touchups and tricks are common in photography today. we talk to a curator at the metropolitan museum of art about an exhibit that explores the history of photo manipulation before photoshop. plus, on making sense, economics correspondent paul solman ponders government versus private spending. all that and more is on our website newshour.pbs.org. ray? >> brown: and again, to our >> suarez: and that's the "newshour" for toni